


Estrella

by KiraLiven



Series: I wasn't looking for a family, then I found you [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Actually just Allura lives, Allura (Voltron) Lives, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Cuban Lance (Voltron), Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Keith just wants a Family, M/M, Parent Keith (Voltron), Parent Lance (Voltron), Pining Keith (Voltron), Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 00:20:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28608939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiraLiven/pseuds/KiraLiven
Summary: Keith didn’t mean to kidnap a half-Galran baby, but somehow he finds himself flying his ship away from an alien planet, infant in his arms. With no idea what to do with a baby, he turns to the only person—the only family—he knows that has experience with children. He should have thought about how attached he’d get to it all: to Lance, the baby, raising a child together—to being part of a family.
Relationships: Keith & Lance's Family (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Series: I wasn't looking for a family, then I found you [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2109489
Comments: 19
Kudos: 280





	Estrella

**Author's Note:**

> This is a canon-divergence AU where pretty much everything is the same, except Allura and Lance don't start dating after the events of "Launch Date" and Allura doesn't die, they sacrifice the lions instead. The events of this fic are set around 5 years after the war. Keith and Lance have a close relationship, but only platonic—they don’t talk about the fact that they (once) had feelings for one another (and maybe still do). Lance works on the farm with his family after having helped out with Earth rebuilding—seeing as Earth is mostly rebuilt now, he’s just been chilling at home, relaxing and going to therapy. He flies out once a year (or so) for Voltron Day (the day they saved the universe) or other big events, like Allura's coronation.

Keith wouldn’t quite say that he _stole_ the baby, exactly, except that he also didn’t ask anyone if he could take her, or sign any paperwork. He just… scooped her up, yelled at his hosts about child endangerment and neglect, and possibly accused them all of bigotry—it’s a bit of a blur, and he’s not entirely sure he’ll ever be allowed back on the planet Monda again—then marched into his ship and took off.

The baby, who had stopped crying when he picked her up from her crib, began wailing as the ship broke through the atmosphere, no doubt uncomfortable with the fight against gravity. Keith drew her close with one arm, steering with the other, and was so concentrated on piloting one-handed that he didn’t even notice the baby throwing up onto his Blade uniform. Once they had left the planet’s orbit, he relaxed, and so did the baby, blinking up at him with large purple eyes. Eyes that were almost like his.

The Mondans were very similar to humans, being in the same galaxy as them. As such, the baby looked almost human, except she was a little more purple than a full human would ever be—a light lavender skin color. Her eyes glowed yellow, sometimes, and she had a full set of sharp teeth Keith only had when he transformed into Galra mode, and her ears, pointed like most Galra, were perched at the top of her head, amidst tufts of white hair. There were tiny indents beside her ears where Keith guessed she might grow her antlers, but female Mondans tended to have smaller antlers and Galra had none, so he wasn’t sure how big they might grow. Keith stared at her for a bit, letting the past few doboshes sink in, and only then did he realize what exactly he had done.

He was screwed.

What was he supposed to do with a _baby_?

About a varga into his flight, Keith had tried bouncing the baby, changing her diaper, feeding her the Monda equivalent to a raw carrot, except it was bright pink and hopefully not as hard to chew, and had even tried singing her to sleep, but nothing kept her quiet long enough for his headache to recede. Even Kosmo tried his best to entertain her and stop her tears, playing some absurd form of peek-a-boo where he’d bark to get her attention, teleport a few steps away, then bark again, which only served to confuse the child and make her cry even harder. Finally, Keith learned that she was hungry, but specifically that she was hungry for meat, which made sense, because Mondans were vegetarians and Galra were decidedly not—he couldn’t stop thinking about the look on their faces when they mentioned her sharp carnivorous teeth. Luckily, he had some dried meat in his emergency food compartment, which turned out she loved. The silence that came with her gnawing messily on the stick was blessed after hearing her cry for so long.

Headache receding and crying-baby crisis averted, Keith had time to figure out what to do next, aside from just flying aimlessly away from Monda and trying not to crash. Eventually, he decided that the best course of action was to find the nearest teleduv to wormhole to Daibazaal, where he could contact his mother and the rest of BOM and find the baby a family. Luckily, the closest teleduv was on Earth, where he’d have clearance to land without much questioning, and where he could get a change of clothes and buy some food and be out before anyone could question his not-quite-a-kidnapping.

Unluckily, they—or, better yet, Pidge—had his ship in their system, and he had already spoken to Lance about stopping by after his mission since they were gonna be in the same galaxy for once. As soon as he was close enough to hail the Garrison and let them know he was coming, Lance was calling his comms. Keith rolled his eyes exasperatedly and vowed to give Pidge a talking-to about telling people his personal information. Then he picked up, because it was Lance.

“Hey Keith!” Lance exclaimed, eyes bright and excited, “how far are you from Earth? You gonna land at the Garrison or straight h—is that a baby?”

“Uh, hi. Lance.” Keith grimaced. “Yeah, hit a bit of a snag on my mission. I’m just gonna make a pit stop at my place to grab food and clothes before I head off to Daibazaal.”

“You—you have a baby.”

“It’s a long story.” Keith explained the mission to drop off relief goods—mostly food, but also some technology—to Monda, visiting the orphanage, and finding the baby set off to the side, her cries ignored because no one wanted to feed or even touch the Galra infant.

“So they were like, starving her?”

“Seemed like it. I’ve given her some meat now, which she’s loving. I think her vegetable intake hasn’t been bad, but she probably needs other nutrients than what they gave her.”

“That’s terrible! She’s probably malnourished!”

“Yeah, so I took her, but now, like… I don’t know what to do with her?” Lance’s face changed to his strategist-thinking-face, and Keith was suddenly glad Lance had called. If anyone had a solution for this baby he’d impulsively taken, it was Lance.

“Did you say… Daibazaal?” Lance asked.

“Yeah, she’s half-Galra and I don’t know where else to bring her,” Keith explained. “The Blade has orphanages for Galra hybrids.” It had been pretty clear early on that such places were necessary, and since a good amount of new Blade members were Galra hybrids once Keith had assumed command, it was one of the first major humanitarian projects the BOM had undergone.

“Is she even, like, old enough to fly, though?”

That gave Keith pause. He glanced down at the infant in his arms, sucking contentedly on her stick of meat. She stared back at him. “I’m, uh, not sure actually.” He frowned. “She did throw up when we left atmo.” There was still a splotch on his uniform where Keith had tried to clean it up.

“Will she be okay to wormhole to Daibazaal? Children under the age of three are usually not allowed to wormhole.” Lance pointed out, and Keith cursed.

“Well then I’ll have to refuel, or get a faster ship. The trip to Daibazaal would take movements without a wormhole.”

“Nuh-uh, not a good idea to bring a baby on a weeks long road trip, Samurai. All they do is cry. And if she’s malnourished you’ll want to be feeding her the right things. Bring her to a hospital or something.”

“She’s not _human_ , Lance, we’d need a Galra doctor to look at her.” Keith glanced down at the baby again. “Or a Mondan doctor?” He frowned at her, and she tilted her head and gurgled at him through her rapidly-diminishing food. “I don’t think I’ll be allowed back. I kind of. Swore at them a lot?”

Lance sighed through the comms. “Bring her here.” He commanded. “I’ll do some research for a doctor. Contact your mom and the Blade, see if you can use any connections to bring a Galra pediatrician or whatever the equivalent is to Earth, or if you can at least consult with one.” He began muttering under his breath as he moved to hang up, something that sounded suspiciously like, “only you would steal a baby without thinking about the consequences.” Keith took offence, but, well, Lance wasn’t wrong, and before he could open his mouth to reply, Lance had already said goodbye and cut off their connection. 

Keith sighed, then quickly contacted Pidge to let the Garrison know he was landing in Cuba. _Say hi to Lance for me,_ she replied.

Lance’s family farm in Cuba was one of Keith’s favorite places in the universe. After the war, even though Keith spent most of his time in space working with the Blade of Marmora or living with his mom on Daibazaal, he still found himself coming down to Earth and spending time with Lance and his family. Keith’s own family home had been rebuilt by him and his mom when they had first come back to Earth, and he still owned the land and technically used it as his permanent address, but as the years went on Keith had found himself touching down directly in Cuba instead of his own backyard. It was just so quiet and lonely in the desert, and the McClains were loud and loving and always, always welcomed him, no matter how long it’d been or whether he had called ahead.

As such, no one was shocked to see Keith’s ship soaring over the fields, and his typical landing spot was empty for him to park his ship for a few days. By the time he made his way down the ramp, squirming baby in one hand and standard-issue duffle bag in the other, space wolf panting at his heels, Lance and his mother were already waiting for him at the edge of the field.

“Keith!” Lance cried, waving his arm wildly. Kosmo yipped happily, which was the only warning Lance got before the giant space wolf teleported on top of him to give him an enthusiastic hello. “Oof, Kosmo—geddoff—good dog—missed you too—“

“Kosmo, get off Lance.” Keith called tiredly as he reached them. “Hi Lance, Tía Maria.”

“Hello Keith,” Lance’s mother replied warmly, looking immediately at the child in Keith’s arms, “and who is this?”

“This is, uh.” Keith’s brows furrowed. “She doesn’t have a name, I’ve just been calling her ‘the baby’. I—um—saved her on my mission.” 

“She’s an orphan, and the people who were supposed to take care of her were starving her, Mamá.” Lance, who had managed to get back on his feet and was idly stroking Kosmo’s head, explained, “She’s half Galra, and they didn’t know how to take care of her properly and were prejudiced against her. So Keith stole her and took her with him. I told him we could help him out with her.”

“I didn’t really have anywhere else to go.” Keith said apologetically, but Tía Maria waved him away.

“Of course we can help you and this baby! Come into the house. Lancito, take Keith’s bag for him.” The boys obeyed, exchanging smiles before following her to the large home.

“I contacted some Galra I know,” Keith started, “including the Blade’s doctor, and we’re gonna try to get her to Earth as soon as possible. I have to keep feeding her meat and give her lots of physical touch, apparently. They did all say it was a good idea not to wormhole, though, Lance, so thanks for that.”

Lance shrugged. “It came up last Voltron Day when Marco wanted to bring his kids to celebrate with us on Altea. They ended up staying, because Julia was too young.” Julia was Marco’s youngest, now three years old, and she was the cutest human baby Keith had ever seen. Granted, she was the only human baby he had ever had close contact with, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t cute. This new baby might be cuter, though she wasn’t human and Keith might be a little biased. He’d just spent a harrowing few vargas with her after he’d kidnapped her from her neglectful caretakers; they’d bonded, okay?

“Mom says she’ll try to get over here as well, so I’ll only have to stay until then,” Keith added, “Even if we can’t take her off-world the two of us would be enough to—“

“Nonsense _mijo_ ,” Tía cut him off, “you stay as long as you need to, until the little one can wormhole or you find her a different home. You’re always welcome, Keith.” Keith blushed and stammered a thank you, missing Lance’s warm smile.

Once they got into the house, it was a flurry of activities. Keith was steered to a rocking chair with the command to “sit”, as Lance disappeared to get him clothes and put his bag away. Lisa came over to coo at the baby in Keith’s arms and give them both food, while Luis and Marco enlisted Kosmo to help him teleport the baby things from the attic down to the _sala_. Kosmo was a bit too big for the attic, but they seemed insistent so Keith didn’t say anything about it. Tía Maria called Rachel, telling her what was happening and that it would be best for her to “pick up the children from school on your way home, Lisa will be too busy to leave.” After Rachel, she moved on to call her husband and the rest of her children, although Veronica did not pick up, as she was off-world on the ATLAS with Shiro for the next few weeks.

When Lance returned with a shirt that Keith had left the last time he’d visited and a pair of sweatpants that were definitely Lance’s, the baby had started fussing from the loud noise and had made a mess of the food Lisa and Keith were trying to feed her. Lance took one look at his distressed face and took command of the situation.

“Lisa, the baby needs some space.” Lance said, shooing her away, “Could you set the food aside for later and help Luis and Marco sort through the baby things? We’ll need baby clothes and a crib. Keith, let’s go to my room.”

Keith gratefully followed his friend into the familiar room, trying not to drop the squirming baby. “Thanks,” he said as Lance shut the door behind him, “I love your family, but this is all kinda…”

“Yeah I get it, I’m overwhelmed too.” Lance replied, setting his clothes down on the foot of the bed. 

Lance’s room was a mix of childhood memories and adult decor. When they had rebuilt the house after the Galra invasion, Lance had tried to recreate his childhood bedroom, including the glow-in-the-dark stars, a photo wall (that held a good amount of selfies of himself over the years) and a few of the posters (the Garrison ones, however, Lance replaced with a poster of Voltron). When they got back from the war and Lance began living in the house full-time, however, he had changed out some of the more childish furniture with Altean ones he was used to from living in the castleship. He had framed photographs as well, instead of just printed-out pictures, and the one on his bedside table was of the Voltron Family, Keith and Lance squished between Hunk and Allura with their arms around each other, Kosmo and Coran at their feet, Pidge on Hunk’s back and Shiro’s Altean arm sneakily giving Keith bunny ears from the other side of Allura.

Keith studied that photo as he changed into new clothes after a quick shower, Lance entertaining a surprised (and newly dressed and cleaned) alien baby behind him. The photo had been taken right after the war, on the newly-restored Altea, after the Lions had left but right before the paladins themselves had scattered across the universe. Looking at all of them, it was hard to imagine that they would have ever voluntarily separated from each other, but they had found their places in the universe, and it wasn’t like Coran or Lance would have let any of them skip their “monthly” Voltron family group calls. Still, Keith missed them. He saw Allura and Coran in person the most, with them living on the planet next door, and sometimes Hunk or Shiro’s travels overlapped with his own missions, but Pidge and Lance rarely went off-world except for Voltron Day every deca-phoeb or other important intergalactic events like Allura’s coronation. (Of course, that never stopped Keith from visiting Cuba every phoeb or two.)

Maybe if Keith was stuck on Earth for a little bit longer they could try to plan a reunion of some kind; Hunk and Allura would definitely make time to see the new baby, and Shiro would be on Earth in around three weeks.

Keith shook his head. The baby wasn’t _his_ , he was just taking care of her until he could find someone else to do it more permanently, or he could bring her to Daibazaal without, like, killing her or something. She didn’t even have a _name_. He definitely couldn’t use her as an excuse to call his family back together again.

Still, as Keith turned around and saw Lance with the baby in his arms, making faces and babbling nonsense Spanglish to her, he couldn’t repress the small flicker of desire at the thought of her joining their family. 

When Lance and Keith finally emerged from Lance’s room, where Keith had taken a quick nap as Lance sat beside him with the baby on his chest, having an intense conversation with the mostly-non-verbal alien, it looked like the baby aisle at a store had blown up. Haphazard piles of clothes, toys, and baby bottles littered most surfaces, and every-so-often Keith caught sight of a piece of the crib that Lance’s siblings were trying to assemble in the middle of the _sala_.

“Um.” Keith said as Lance gaped.

“What happened here?” He asked exasperatedly.

“Oh, good, Lance come help us.” Marco called, not looking up from his toolbox.

“Keith! Good to see you, is this the new little one?” Rachel rose and made her way over, barely sparing Keith a glance as she leaned toward the baby. Keith angled his arms to let her see the child’s face better, and Rachel cooed.

“Tío Keith’s here!” Came a cry from the other room, and he turned his head to see Nadia and Silvio running through the open door, only to be stopped by a stern Lisa with a three-year-old on one hip.

“I know Tío Keith’s here, _mijos_ , but you can’t go in there until your Papá and his siblings have finished making the crib.” Despite their whines, Nadia and Silvio backed out. Keith didn’t blame them; their mother was scary, and the chaos in the room was daunting.

“Do you guys, uh, need any help?” Keith called to the McClain siblings, who had already roped Lance into finding crib pieces.

“Not while you’re holding this cutie,” Rachel replied, winking at said baby, “I could take her if you want, and you can help make the crib.” Rachel looked earnest, and her hands came up in offering, but Keith found himself holding the baby closer to his chest.

“Uh, that’s okay,” he said, and looked away from Rachel only to find himself making eye contact with Lance. “I’ll just go… feed her first.” Then he fled the knowing eyes that followed him, hurrying into the kitchen.

While he fed the baby, Keith found himself in the dining room on double babysitting duty with Tía Maria, holding his newly-acquired ( _not_ stolen or kidnapped) baby and assisting in the children’s homework while Tía Maria cooked dinner and listened to her youngest grandchild as she told her about her day at preschool. After they finished their homework, the children wanted to hear stories about his BOM adventures while the baby slept in his arms, and then Nadia, assisted by Julia, drew him and Kosmo saving the baby from evil vegetable-loving aliens (they looked like broccoli, and Keith didn’t have the heart to tell them how inaccurate that was), and Silvio started playing a video game (Keith was pretty sure Silvio was lying when he said his mother allowed him to play, but Tía Maria had yet to say anything, so Keith let it be). Finally, after he had mediated an argument between the girls, Silvio had to be told to keep it down after he yelled at his game too many times, and the baby had to get her diaper changed (thank god for Tía Maria, who had probably changed far too many diapers in her life and who would probably continue to do so in the future if she had any say about it), the McClain siblings emerged from their workshop.

“We called Pidge,” Rachel announced, “like I’ve been _telling_ them to do.” She sent a pointed look at her older brothers.

“What Rachel means is, the crib is done.” Luis corrected.

“What have you kids been up to with Tío Keith?” Lisa asked, and the children jumped up to their parents, chattering away.

Lance collapsed onto the seat beside Keith with a small “oof”. “And how has our little star been?” He asked, slipping the baby out of Keith’s arms and into his own.

“Little star?” Keith asked skeptically, stretching out his arms. Babies were _heavy_. 

Lance shrugged, “I’ve been calling her ‘little star’ in my head, because, y’know, she came from the stars.” The baby cooed at Lance, and he brightened immediately. “See? She likes it!”

“She—she’s a baby, she can’t understand you. And you can’t just name her.”

“Why not? And star isn’t really a _name_ , it’s a nickname, like Mullet or Samurai.”

“Yeah, but—if you name her—I mean, she—she’s not _yours_ , Lance, you can’t just give her a name.”

Lance froze, looking up at Keith with wide eyes, “oh, I’m sorry, do you want her back, I just took her from you and I shouldn’t’ve done that, I should’ve asked—“

“No,” Keith shook his head, “I didn’t mean it like that, it’s fine—I meant, like, she’s not _any_ of ours. Naming her… We can’t get attached.” _I can’t get attached to this,_ he added in his mind.

“Keith…” Lance shifted to catch his eye, but Keith moved to stare stubbornly at his lap. “Keith—“ Keith glared. “…okay. Okay, we don’t have to give her a real name if you don’t want to. But I’m not just gonna keep calling her ‘the baby’, so I’m calling her star. You can give her your own nickname if you want.” Keith shook his head, then took a deep breath and stood up, moving away and purposefully turning his back to them. Lance could take care of the baby for a while.

“Sounds like you had a lot of fun with Tío Keith, huh?” Luis said as Keith approached him and his family. His three children nodded enthusiastically.

“Tío Keith, how long are you staying this time?” Silvio asked. Last time Keith had left them to go on a mission, Silvio had sobbed and clung to him, demanding he come visit again soon. It had been a hard goodbye for the both of them.

“Um, I’m not quite sure yet.” Keith responded.

“I wish you would stay _forever_!” Nadia exclaimed, throwing her hands up. Keith smiled nervously at her and did not know whether or not to mention the fact that he may very well be staying forever—indefinitely—until he figured out what to do with the baby that could not wormhole for at least another two years. Really, it said a lot about his relationship with the family that he was even _considering_ staying that long, and Keith did not want to think about it. Luckily, Lisa saved him by changing the subject.

“Keith, I’m not sure if Lance has talked to you about this, but Silvio has actually been staying in your room—the guest room, that is,” Lisa explained, lifting her head to speak above the children in the way adults do when the conversation gets to serious things. “We’re renovating our house, so are staying here for the next month before we can move back in. We can clean the room up and set Silvio up with the girls so you can have the room, but the crib won’t fit in there—“

“—So we’d have to keep the crib in a more communal area like the _sala_ , which works if you’d like more help with taking care of the baby,” Luis added.

“There are a lot of other options, of course.” Lisa continued, “Lance’s room can fit another bed—or the crib—in it, and we could make the guest room a nursery or a kid’s room if you’re more comfortable with that. It’s just going to be a little tight until we can move out.”

“Really sorry about this, Keith.”

“No, I’m the one who’s sorry, I don’t mean to impose or put anyone out of their rooms,” Keith placed a hand on Silvio’s head in acknowledgement of the pouting he was doing, “and it’s alright, I’ve set up in Lance’s room already—but I’m not too sure about the crib, I know babies cry a lot and I don’t want her to be waking anyone up—“

“That’s not a problem, at all!” Rachel cut him off, “You and the baby can stay wherever, and we’ll all help with her in the middle of the night if that’s what you want. She’s new and you don’t have experience with taking care of babies, so we want you to be comfortable and to have whatever support you need. We’re here to help.” 

Keith smiled at Rachel. “Thank you.”

Marco clapped a hand onto Keith’s shoulder and began steering him to his seat beside Lance at the dining table. “Take some time to think about it, too, nothing needs to be done until after dinner, and we can always change things around later if you and Lance end up wanting your own spaces.”

“You talking about rooming situations?” Lance asked, smiling and propping the baby up, directing her attention to Keith. Keith _thought_ he saw her smile at seeing him, but he was pretty sure that was all in his head. “You told them you were staying in my room, right?”

“Yeah,” Keith nodded and held his arms out to take the baby.

“Nuh-uh, Samurai,” Lance held the baby closer, “you need to eat dinner. I’ll take care of the little star first.” Keith’s protests were drowned out by the larger McClain clan’s coos at Lance’s nickname for the baby. Whatever. Keith _was_ pretty hungry anyway.

Dinner found Keith explaining once more his mission to Monda, mostly for Lance’s father’s benefit, as he had been working all day and only arrived for dinner. (“My children abandoned me out in the fields to set up for the new baby, after all.” “Papá, most of the work is automated!”) Lance’s nickname for the baby was sticking, and Julia, who had only recently realized that not everyone could speak two languages and therefore loved to flaunt her bilingualism, introduced _Estrella_ as the better name for the baby. (“Es-tre-ya” she enunciated to Keith, who pretended he hadn’t known the Spanish word for “star”.) Halfway through dinner, Keith took his little star back from Lance so he could eat, (he’d offered to bring her to the crib, but dinner time was family time, so no one wanted her to be left out) and Tía Maria promised that he could heat up leftovers after dinner if he was still hungry. (It wasn’t likely, what with the way his plate had been loaded both by himself and a sneaky Lance.)

After dinner, Keith was given a few piles of baby clothes they thought would fit (“look at this, think how cute she’d look in this hat!”), and the family spent a while waving random toys at Estrella (Kosmo caught the most attention from her, despite not having a toy at all). They’d suggested Keith put her down and see if she could sit up (she couldn’t, but they weren’t sure if that was because she was still young or because of how weak she was) but after a while of watching her struggle on her back and then on her stomach, Keith took pity on her and sat her up against him. He found he liked the feeling of her small body against his chest, feeling her tiny heartbeat against his.

After a while people started to disperse, the children going off to bed and the adults off to their own tasks. The baby was fussing a bit, so Keith was loathed to put her down, and she came with him and Lance into  their Lance’s room while they got ready for bed, chatting and catching up. But then Estrella started whining, not quite the crying she made for food or to be changed, but something more painful, and Keith’s heart seized.

“What’s wrong with her?” He asked, trying to offer her water, vegetables, or meat. Lance shrugged helplessly. “Lance! She’s _crying_!”

Lance took pity on him and scooped the baby up, making shushing noises and doing a weird bounce-rocking motion with his body. Her whimpers subsided, but didn’t disappear. Keith made a despairing sound.

“We might have overdid it with the food.” Tía Maria said at the door, causing them to whirl towards her. Lance held Estrella out, and she picked her up, doing her own soothing bounce and humming quietly. “She probably hasn’t been fed this much before, and no meat at all ever. Her body is adjusting.” Her shoulder went up in a shrug. “That, or she’s sick.” Another noise was pulled out of Keith at that. “She’s on an alien planet without vaccinations, she’s malnourished and weak, and we know nothing about her biology if she were sick; does she get fevers like we do, or are there other symptoms we don’t know about?”

“I don’t… I don’t know, Tía Maria what do we do—“

“You hold her, and you soothe her.” Tía Maria offered the mostly-calm baby, and Keith took her. “Make sure she’s getting enough water—“ Lance offered to fill up another sippy cup for the night, and slipped out of the room, “—and then I’m afraid it’s just holding her close and trying not to cry too.” She smiled wryly at the look Keith gave her. “Parents don’t know everything, Keith, we only pretend that we do. Most of the time it’s like this, just doing what we can and hoping for the best. She’s strong, to have lived this long, and I’m sure she will be fine. But monitor her, keep her close. If it gets worrisome we could try a hospital, but I’m not sure what they could do for an alien baby—might be best to wait for your Galra doctor to come.”

“Can I—can we—“ Keith swallowed as Lance entered the room again. “Can she stay here with us, on the bed?” Keith avoided people’s eyes by frowning at Estrella. “I just—I think Galra babies sleep with their parents until they’re fairly old, and the doctors said she needs contact with people, and that way we can monitor her—“

“Keith, of course.” A hand landed on his shoulder, so Keith lifted his eyes to meet Lance’s. “The bed’s a little small, but I think it’ll be fine with the three of us.” Their eye contact was broken as Estrella began whining again, and Keith looked back down to bounce her the way the other two had. 

Tía Maria bid them goodnight, reminding them to come for help if they need any, at any time of night, and Lance and Keith settled themselves down side-by-side on the bed, trying to hum their baby to sleep.

Keith woke up the next day alone. Panic immediately filled him as his arm reached across the other side of the bed and felt it empty; bolting upright, he noticed that not even Kosmo was in the room. 

Trying to slow his pounding heart, Keith rushed out of the room and into the _sala_. No one was there and the crib was empty, but he heard voices in the kitchen, so he turned and burst through the doors.

“Oh hey Keith, you’re finally awake! Good morning.” Lance, sitting in the kitchen with their little star cradled in his arms and Kosmo at his feet. Lance, smiling at him, mug of coffee nearly empty in front of him. Lance, whose face was getting more and more worried as Keith slumped against the doorframe, hand on his chest, panting.

_God I love this man,_ the thought filtered through Keith’s tired mind before he could push it away. _Don’t._ He scolded himself. _He’s not yours_. The reminder was enough to pull Keith upright and move to sit next to Lance at the kitchen counter.

“Morning.” He muttered.

“You okay?” Lance asked, face still concerned. Keith nodded.

“Morning Keith, breakfast?” Luis was at the stove with Rachel, cooking breakfast.

“Uh, yes, please. Thank you.” Keith finally allowed himself to turn and look at the baby, check on her. She was awake and gnawing on what looked like an apple slice. “She alright?” He asked Lance, who beamed.

“Yeah, she’s been great. She was crying earlier this morning, so I took her to get something to eat and stayed out so you could get some more sleep. She went with me to feed the animals, although I had to ask Rachel to milk Kaltenecker for me. She learned all about the different farm animals on Earth! And I think she’s beginning to get what pointing means—she looks when I point now.” Lance’s proud look was too much for Keith this soon after waking up, so he turned away to pour himself a cup of coffee and accept a plate of bacon and eggs from Luis. “And Mamá took a look at her this morning before bringing the _chicos_ to school—you just missed them, by the way, Nadia was sad about that, wanted to skip school for you—and Mamá said she looks fine. Was probably just adjusting to everything, to having a proper diet—or, well, we hope it’s a proper diet. I asked Hunk to do a quick analysis of Galra and Monda diets to match them with Earth food, and he said he didn’t think anything was poisonous for them that isn’t for us, but when he gets back to me with a proper list and probably some recipes we’ll be able to keep her better fed. I think,” he added as an afterthought.

“Mm. Thanks.” Keith glanced at them again, eyes lingering on Estrella, who finished her apple and cooed up at Lance, arms up-stretched. Lance had dressed her in a onesie patterned with stars and rocket ships, probably because he thought it would be funny. _She’s too cute_ , Keith thought, smiling absentmindedly as Lance tickled her lightly and bounced her up and down. Keith reached over to grab another apple slice from Lance’s plate (or, more likely, his little star’s plate) and feed it to Estrella.

“You three are so cute.” Rachel commented, and Keith reared back as if burned; the apple fell to the ground and the baby burst into tears. “Oops.”

“Rachel!” Lance scolded, bouncing harder and shushing, reaching to get another piece of apple and offer it to Estrella. Keith leaned over to pick the other piece off the floor and into the compost, and decided not to mention that it hadn’t been Rachel’s fault. “You always do this! Can’t you be more careful?”

“It was an accident, let me help! Let me hold the baby, I haven’t even held her once yet!” Rachel begged, “I can make her stop crying, you know I can make her stop crying!” Lance snapped something angry and possessive in Spanish, and Rachel pouted; she responded in like, and then the twins were arguing in Spanish, and the baby was wailing, and Luis was cursing as he tried not to burn his own breakfast and plate it, and Keith had been awake for maybe five minutes and was thinking of matching his baby in tears.

“ _Basta!_ What is going on?” Tía Maria demanded as she entered the room. The McClains immediately went silent, but Estrella had yet to learn the fear of the McClain matriarch and continued to cry. Tía Maria took the baby with a pointed look at her son, telling him to figure it out with his sister, and then moved to the _sala._

Lance sighed. “Sorry, Rach.” He said wearily. “I…” He ran a hand over his face, and Keith was reminded that Lance had had just as bad a night as he had, waking up every few hours to soothe Estrella’s whimpers or feed her or change her or just pace the room, humming random tunes until she fell asleep. He felt a pang of guilt; Lance had even left with her to let Keith sleep longer.

“I’m sorry, too.” Rachel muttered. “I should’ve waited for her to settle down first.”

Luis moved to sit at the kitchen island, winking at Keith as he passed by. “Lance is a new parent, Rach, you gotta let him hold his baby first.” Keith jolted again and opened his mouth to protest, making panicked eye contact with Lance, but Luis continued before he could get a word in, “besides, in a few days he and Keith will be begging us to babysit for a while.”

Rachel laughed, and Lance smiled, too, and the eye contact he had made with Keith became less panicked and more something else, something soft and warm and intimate. Keith realized his mouth was hanging open and shut it abruptly, looking away hastily. He muttered a quick apology and rushed to the _sala_. 

_He’s not yours_ , he reminded himself, _don’t get too attached to this._

Luis was right, and as the days went by Keith found himself more and more exhausted, and more and more grateful for the help Lance’s family was. Between calling his mother and as many doctors as possible, contacting orphanages to find people willing to take the baby in, avoiding the diplomatic mess that he’d caused on Monda, trying to lead the Blades from afar, _and_ taking care of Estrella, which got more and more harrowing as they tried to figure out what might be wrong with her and how they could fix it, Keith found himself taking naps on the couch whenever possible, often cuddling up to Lance as he entertained the baby. Everyone, even Kosmo and the kids, got their turn to babysit for a while so Lance and Keith could sleep, or shower, or call Voltron (Hunk had told everyone that Lance had gotten a new baby, which of course warranted a video call to explain the situation properly and then also to show off said baby). Keith sometimes put Estrella into the crib to sleep, but she hated it and often woke up after only a few minutes, and Keith hated it too, so they tried to have someone with her at all times, even when she was napping. At night, after Keith had tried to put her down in her crib and failed, Lance would just shrug and bring her into bed with them, where she’d sleep soundly nestled between their chests, their hands laying protectively on top of her.

Keith was horribly, horribly attached.

He pushed the thought away, most of the time, but every-so-often it’d hit him, like when Lance called her their little star, or Keith woke up (astonishingly) before either of them and was greeted by the image of Lance, curled around their baby, in their bed. Whenever he felt anything along the lines of love, or longing, or that all-consuming fear and protectiveness that bordered on possessive, Keith always fell into panic and tried to distance himself, leaving Lance with the baby ( _not_ Estrella, she didn’t have a name because she wasn’t theirs to name) and called an orphanage, asking if they could please find someone to take care of this child.

Whenever he was inevitably drawn back to the baby, or to Lance, Lance would send him this look, one that was slightly hurt and accusative and yet also knowing and understanding at the same time. “Welcome back,” he’d mutter, and then refuse to give him Estrella until he felt Keith had suffered enough from the forced separation. (Keith had once begged him, after having spent the entire morning in his ship making calls to as many people as he could possibly think of, to let him hold Estrella. “I’m sorry for disappearing this morning, Lance _please_ , let me take care of her, I won’t do it again—“).

Finally, about a week after Keith had arrived on Earth with an alien baby that wasn’t his, Keith’s mother arrived on the McClain farm with both the BOM doctor and a Garrison doctor. And Pidge and Hunk.

The doctors examined Estrella in the _sala_ with Keith, Lance, Krolia, Hunk, and Pidge all hovering around. Keith and Lance tried to answer the doctor’s questions as best they could while Pidge and Hunk whispered to themselves about how cute the baby was, and “can you believe these two were the first to have a baby? _Keith_ , a dad!”. Krolia stood mostly impassively, but there was a softness to her expression Keith recognized as fondness.

“You two have been doing remarkably well,” The BOM doctor, Zalian, said, finally, removing her fingers from Estrella’s teeth, “she’s quite healthy, for having been neglected the first six phoebs of her life.” She wiped her hand and gave the baby back to Keith, who held her close and ignored his Voltron siblings and the hand Lance had placed protectively on the small of his back. “Mr. Garrett and I have been communicating, and will provide you with a proper diet for her—you said her name was Star?—“

“Estrella,” Lance corrected, at the same time that Keith explained she had no name, “we call her Estrella, which is star in Spanish.”

“Er, right.” With her translator in, it was probably too confusing for her to parse. “Well, I will give you a list of what foods and how much of each food you should be giving her.”

“I have some Galra groceries I brought with me,” Hunk added behind her, “so you can feed her those as well.”

“If you follow the diet for a month, she should become healthy enough to meet her age group in weight—although as a hybrid we can’t be positive what a healthy weight for her is—and you can stop being as strict with what you feed her. I believe Mr. Garrett has also brought Altean diplomatic travel food—” Food goo, Hunk was quick to explain, “—so if you feed her enough of that her stomach should be able to digest most food without a problem. It will also serve to immunize her from diseases—you’ve been lucky that she has remained as healthy as she has so far, although Galra don’t get sick very often, even of alien diseases.”

“Yeah, we did have a few scares, some discomfort and sleepless nights crying, but it usually passed.” Lance informed her.

“That would likely be her adjusting to touch—you have been sleeping with her and holding her as often as possible, correct?”

“Yeah, we don’t like to put her down in her crib to sleep.” Keith replied, trying not to blush at the looks his family were giving him.

“But she spent most of her time alone in a crib when you first found her, correct?”

“Yes. They were ignoring her when she cried and left her in a separate room so she wouldn’t bother the other children.”

Zalian grimaced at the news. “Terrible. Babies need to be held! You should not even be leaving her in a crib for more than a few minutes—you shouldn’t even need a crib yet at this age.”

“Galra children are a bit unique, I think,” Krolia interrupted, “Many other species’ infants are not so dependent on their families. Keith could be separated from me by the time he could crawl, and his father insisted he begin to learn to sleep in a crib before seven phoebs had passed. By the time I had to leave him, at twenty-eight months—that would be around twenty-three phoebs—he’d had his own room and bed that he slept in every night, for months.”

“Sleep in a crib at seven phoebs?!” The Galra looked devastated. “Having his own room and bed at twenty-three—that’s far too young!”

“It’s not too uncommon for humans,” the Garrison doctor replied, “although there are some cultures that don’t, many humans provide babies with their own cribs and then their own beds from birth, and they usually try to train the baby to sleep in their own beds.”

“But what if they need you in the middle of the night?” The woman looked on the verge of disbelief.

“They cry, and we go see what they need.” Lance shrugged, “after a while they learn to sleep through the night.”

“That is barbaric!” The Galra doctor drew herself up to her full height. “I don’t know what the situation is with this baby, but as she is Galra, it is in her best interests to continue sleeping in the same bed with her for at least a decaphoeb. For her social development. Also, keep her surrounded by language, because I’m sure she is very confused—if she was separated from the rest she might not have an appropriate understanding of language at all, much less a non-Mondan language. And if she is going to live here on Earth she’ll need to learn an Earthen language—you might also want to speak Galran around her, so that she at least learns the sounds.”

“Baby’s gonna grow up trilingual!” Pidge crowed.

“Galran will be important,” Keith nodded, “but she’ll probably forget English and Spanish once she’s grown up.” There was a tense silence after his words, and he ducked his head to avoid Lance’s eyes.

“Keith…” Hunk began, but was interrupted by Krolia pulling out her tablet.

“Keith, I’m sending you a series of documents.” She said, tapping on her tablet, “since you decided to avoid all confrontation with Monda, I reached out to them to ensure there was no ill will between us and them—thank you, by the way, for this intergalactic scandal. They’ve agreed not to make it a big deal, but are relinquishing all ties to the baby. She’s a Galra hybrid, though, which means—“

“She doesn’t get Daibazaal citizenship.” Keith finished, and she nodded.

“Daibazaal would hold her as a refugee, but she isn’t in the system yet, and technically she’s not on Daibazaal—Earth is the one the has to accept her as a refugee. She’s homeless, and no state is accountable for her.” Krolia handed her tablet to Keith, who gave Lance the baby and took the tablet, squinting down at the Galran form. “This is an adoption form, Keith.” Keith jerked away, staring at his mother with wide eyes. “She’s too young to travel to Daibazaal, and you have technically smuggled her onto Earth. She has nowhere to go. Your citizenship with Daibazaal is still pending, as we still haven’t figured out our laws for Galra hybrids, but your Earth citizenship holds. You’re on Earth, and she will likely have to stay on Earth for a while. Give her a home, Keith.”

“But—“ Keith blinked at her despairingly, trying not to cry. “How can I give her something I don’t have?”

Beside him, Lance took a sharp breath and stiffened. Keith tried not to look at him, but he knew the look on Lance’s face. It was that betrayed understanding, that look he was given whenever he ran, whenever he found himself coming back, back to Lance and Estrella and the desire that burned through his body.

“Keith!” Hunk whispered, and Pidge made a wounded sound. Krolia— _his mother_ —only looked at him, sadness in her eyes.

“Keith,” Lance spoke quietly, but Keith could hear the restrained anger in his voice, “we need to talk.” Keith broke eye contact with his mom and nodded, turning to make his way to Lance’s room. 

“I’m sorry,” he heard Lance say to the doctors behind him, “but I just need to talk to Keith for a bit.”

“We understand, Mr. McClain,” Zalian replied, “please take all the time you need to speak with your mate.” Keith closed the door to Lance’s room at that; he didn’t want to hear Lance’s response to Keith being called his mate.

Lance’s room had a full-length mirror, because Lance was the type of man who needed to see his full outfit before going somewhere and often liked to practice lines and make faces at himself. Keith took advantage of this to stare into his own eyes and tell himself, calmly, that this was it, that it was all over, but that it was okay, and he was going to be alright. He might lose the McClains, and Estrella, but he would always have his mother, and even if Hunk and Pidge took Lance’s side, Shiro would never abandon him, and Allura and Coran would probably try to stay friends with both of them. Besides, it wasn’t like he and Lance were dating, despite everything, so maybe there wouldn’t be sides at all, because this wasn’t going to be a break-up. “No matter what,” Keith told himself, “don’t cry.” Keith hadn’t cried over Lance since that time Hunk had let slip that Lance was dating again after the war, and Keith was struck with the realisation that Lance was never going to wait for him, that whatever chance he might have had, he’d lost it when he chose the Blades over going back to Earth. That he was forever doomed to love Lance silently, from afar, while Lance found someone else and fell in love with them instead. Then he had promised himself he’d never cry over Lance again, and he’d kept that promise so far.

When Lance finally entered the room, Keith was sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at his hands. Lance sighed and sat beside him. He didn’t have the baby.

“I can’t adopt her.” Keith said, speaking into his lap, “you know I can’t.”

“I left Estrella with your mom,” Lance said, ignoring him, “and Hunk and the doctors are talking with my mom over her diet.”

“…That’s good.” Keith rasped, when it seemed Lance wasn’t going to go on. “But I can’t—“

“Keith, I just…” Lance closed his eyes and put his head in his hands. “I don’t understand. How could you say you can’t adopt her? How could you say you have no home?”

“Lance…”

“It’s been five years, Keith. Five years of you visiting, of you coming to see us every time you stop by Earth, every time you’re in our galaxy. Five years of us welcoming you into the family, and then welcoming a baby you literally _kidnapped_ at a moment’s notice, because you’re _family_ , Keith, and we wanted this to be your home. _I_ wanted this to be your home.”

“But this is _your_ home, Lance, _your_ family.”

“I want it to be _our_ family.” Lance whispered the words so quietly that Keith could barely hear them.

“Our family is Voltron, and the castleship is gone, and so are the lions.” This was a familiar statement; he had said something similar to Krolia when she asked him if he needed more time to think about leading the Blades, to Shiro when he asked Keith to move back to Earth permanently, and even to Pidge when she complained about missing him. He had said it to Lance when they discussed his decision to leave Earth, that night after the war when it was just the two of them and Keith thought, or maybe he hoped, that Lance was really talking about them, and the strange more-than-space-partners relationship they’d developed over their time on the ATLAS. When Keith lost whatever chance he might have had at having Lance the way he really wanted.

“But even if the lions are gone, we’re still here— _I_ am still here.” Keith didn’t respond. “Keith… do you not want to raise Estrella?” The question hit Keith hard, and he stiffened.

“I want her to grow up with a happy, whole family.” He replied carefully, “I want her to have a good, loving, mother and father and maybe siblings. I want her to have a home where she belongs, where no one will neglect her or mistreat her.”

“But do you want her?”

“I can’t give her those things, can’t give her a family or a home.”

“But do you _want_ her?” Keith clenched his jaw and glared at the floor. “…because I do, Keith.” Keith inhaled sharply at that, but didn’t move. What would he do if Lance took Estrella and left Keith alone? Could he ever come back to Earth if that happened? “I want to raise Estrella. I want to be her father, her Papá. I want to take care of her and love her for as long as I’m living… and I want to do it with you.”

“What?” Keith finally dragged his eyes to meet Lance’s. His blue eyes were swimming with unshed tears, but they crinkled at the edges of a bittersweet smile. “You… want…?”

“I want to have a family with you, Keith.” Lance said steadily, “I want to raise a child with you and I want that child to be the one we’ve been parenting this past week, the one you saved from neglectful caregivers, the one your mother is holding right now. I want to be Papá while you are Dad, and I want to love you both with all my heart.”

“I don’t…”

“Do you want that, Keith?” Lance had that look again, that hurt understanding, as Keith stammered, searching for words. “It’s just a yes or a no, Keith. Do you want to have a family with me and Estrella, or do you not?”

“…I do.” The words snuck past Keith’s lips before he could stop them, but he barely had any time to panic, because Lance brightened, beaming, and brought his hands up to cup Keith’s face.

“You do?” He asked, almost disbelievingly, and Keith registered his thumbs moving across his cheeks, wiping tears Keith hadn’t noticed were falling.

“I do, I want… I want a family with you both.” Now that he had started, the words seemed to fall out of his mouth, “I want what we’ve had this week, with our little star. I want—I want to wake up with you two in my bed, I want to fall asleep next to you, I want to raise Estrella and teach her to walk and talk and fight—“ Lance gave a broken laugh at that, “—and I—I want to love you. I want to be allowed to love you. _Please_ let me love you.”

Lance pressed their foreheads together and Keith closed his eyes. He knew he wasn’t going to be rejected—Lance had already said he wanted the same things he did—but he found himself bracing for it anyway.

“Sweetheart, I’ve been waiting for you to ask.” Lance whispered, and then he kissed him.

Pidge and Krolia, holding Estrella, were the only ones still in the _sala_ when Keith and Lance emerged from their bedroom, eyes slightly red but smiling. Krolia took one look at their clasped hands and smiled.

“I suppose you have chosen, then? You’ll adopt this baby?” She asked, standing from the couch to meet them.

“Uh, yeah.” Keith blushed and ducked his head, but Lance squeezed his hand and then let it go to wrap his arm around his waist. “But, uh, we’ll need Earth documents, not Daibazaal ones. We—that is, Lance and I, _both_ —would like to adopt Estrella, so she’ll need to be legal, on—on Earth. Not Daibazaal.”

“Our little star,” Lance cooed, and brought his free hand up to stroke their baby’s cheek.

“Oh my god does that mean—Hunk!” Pidge called, eyes wide and smiling, “Hunk come quick they did it! It finally happened!”

Hunk came in through the kitchen, followed by the two doctors, Tía Maria, and what looked to be all of Lance’s siblings, although the didn’t enter the _sala_ and it was hard to tell with them all crowding the doorway.

“What happened?” Hunk asked, wringing his hands, “Oh my god did they get together? Pidge did it finally happen?” Keith wanted to be a bit offended by the whole emphasis on “finally” getting together, but in truth it had been five years—if not more—in coming, and really, he found he echoed the sentiment somewhat.

“Yes, we got together,” Lance replied, rolling his eyes. “Confessed our love for each other, agreed to give us a shot, the whole shebang.”

“My life is complete.” Pidge whispered.

“I have to tell everyone,” Hunk announced, bringing out his communicator.

“Oh my god, Hunk, it’s been five minutes.” Keith complained, “and can’t you let _us_ be the ones to tell people we’re dating?” Hunk grinned and pocketed his communicator sheepishly.

“Oh, dating sounds weird.” Lance pulled back from Estrella and wrinkled his nose. “We’re raising a baby together, Keith. ‘Boyfriends’ is a bit…”

“Juvenile?” Krolia suggested, smirking amusedly. Keith decided that seeing his mother with that much facial expression was creepy, and made a face at her in return.

“Okay, well either way we should be the ones to tell people that we’re raising a baby together.” Keith amended.

“Non-platonically.” Lance added, and smacked a quick kiss on Keith’s cheek. Keith wondered if he could die of embarrassment. 

“Yeah, non-platonically… raising a baby.” He managed.

“Like, romantically.” Lance beamed, “we’re in love and raising a baby together!” The McClains all cheered at his announcement, and Keith avoided his mother’s eyes by burying his face in Lance’s shoulder. Lance pressed a kiss to the top of his head, and Keith pressed his smile into Lance’s arm.

* * *

“I can’t believe you just _left_ Altea on a short notice just to see Stella.” Lance told Allura, hugging her in greeting, “You could’ve waited, it’s not like she’s going anywhere.”

Allura laughed as they drew apart, “and be the last one in the family to see her? Absolutely not! Romelle can handle Altea for a few days, and I’m available on call. I was due for a vacation, anyway.” She waved him off, and Lance went to greet Coran.

“Look at you,” Shiro was telling Keith, leaning over to look at the baby in his arms, “a mate, a baby, a great big family you’re technically legally married into.” Keith blushed, but smiled nonetheless. They weren’t counting their court wedding as a “real” wedding, but Keith and Lance had technically married to make the adoption go smoother. Lance still refused to call them husbands, though. “I’m so proud of you, Keith.” A pause. “Even if you did beat me in the baby department. Curtis won’t shut up about settling down on Earth and having kids now, so thanks for that.”

Keith laughed, “well just hope he doesn't show up with a random baby he kidnapped, it can cause a lot of problems.”

“I’ll say, what’s the situation with the Blades?” Shiro backed up to let Lance take Estrella, peck Keith chastely on the lips, then bring her to the Alteans, who were beside themselves with excitement. “Cute,” Shiro added, which Keith ignored.

“I’m on leave for now.” He answered, “Acxa is in charge of the Blade while I’m gone, which is all good, because Monda is pretty angry with us and my stepping down works in favor of smoothing things over with them. And I don’t… I don’t really want to leave Earth for a while.” While he spoke, Keith’s eyes wandered over to Lance and Stella, watching as she pulled Allura’s hair and smiled—the smiling was new, and wonderful, and Lance had already taken about a thousand photos of her.

“What will you do in the meantime, then? Just raise Stella? I never really thought you could sit still for that long.”

“I probably won’t.” Keith wrinkled his nose at the thought, “But as of now Stella can’t be without someone from her family, at least for a year or two—Lance and I were talking about moving out, because the house is a little crowded with everyone there, but honestly we need the help still.” Keith shrugged, “I might see if there’s anything left with the rebuilding effort, although I know Lance said that’s mostly done already. Maybe I’ll see if the Garrison has any openings for day jobs; I wouldn’t mind teaching piloting, I think.” Keith shot Shiro a grin, “you think I could get a job at the Garrison?”

“I could put in a good word or two, if that’s what you want.” Shiro grinned back and lifted his human arm to ruffle Keith’s hair. “Just don’t punch anyone in the face this time.”

Curtis approached them, holding two plates of food, one of which he handed to his husband. “Congratulations again, Keith,” he said, and Keith nodded in acknowledgement. “I have a question, though, about her name? I heard one of Lance’s nieces say her name was Estrella? But you’ve been using Stella, right?”

“Yeah, it’s kinda a… tradition with the McClains to have a Spanish name and an English version of that name—y’know, like how Lance is Leandro. Estrella is star in Spanish, and was initially just a nickname for her before we adopted her, but it kinda stuck. So she’s officially Estrella Kogane-McClain, but her English name—that’s a name, not just a word we use for her—is Stella. Either one works, though.”

“Huh.” Curtis took a bite of rope vieja and chewed thoughtfully. “She have a Galran name too, then?”

“Her middle name is Krolia, for my mom. But, uh, no.” Across the lawn, Lance was gesturing for him, so Keith excused himself and made his way over.

“I missed you,” Lance said in greeting, as Keith placed a hand on his back.

“Lance, we spoke like three minutes ago,” Keith rolled his eyes and moved to hug Allura and Coran briefly. “It’s good to see you two,” he told them.

“It’s good to see you, Number Four,” Coran replied.

“It’s good to see you so happy, Keith.” Allura added, “You and Lance both.”

“Yeah.” Keith turned to wrap an arm around Lance, who kissed him on the cheek. “I… I’ve missed everyone,” Keith admitted, “and I’m glad you can all be here to celebrate Stella’s adoption.”

“Lance!” Rachel called from the outdoor table they had set up with food, “Stop hogging Stella!”

“She’s my daughter, Rachel, I can do whatever I want!” Lance called back.

“Oh, but can we get a picture?” Hunk asked, holding up an old-fashioned camera. “I want one with Stella! And also one with Stella and her parents! And the Voltron family should take a photo too! And then we can take a photo with her and the McClains, and of all of us—we should just be taking a lot of photos.” Hunk ended sheepishly, but Lance and Keith were already on their way over to him.

They took photos, and passed Stella around, (“She smiled at me!”) and ate food, talking and laughing until Stella got cranky and the kids had to be sent to bed. Keith offered to put Stella down in their bed, but ultimately couldn’t leave her (it was a Galra thing, they’d found out), so ended up getting ready for bed himself and laying beside her, texting Lance from their bedroom as he bid their guests goodbye and cleaned up with his siblings. 

Finally, Lance entered their room. They talked quietly as Lance got changed, casual, domestic topics about their friends (“Shiro says Curtis wants kids.” “No way, ‘cause of us?”), the party itself (“That cake was really good, was that Hunk or your mom?” “Don’t care, as long as I get to eat some tomorrow.”), and their plans for the next day (“I want to dress Stella up in that sailor’s outfit, you know the one?” “Mm, then we can go to the beach and show her the ocean.”). Keith loved every second of it, every smile Lance sent, every quiet word he spoke; it had only been two weeks of being boyfriends, or mates, or “romantic life partners” as Lance preferred, but Keith knew that this was his favorite part of the day: getting ready for bed, trading tired words and sleepy kisses, careful not to wake their daughter in between them, knowing that when he woke up the next day, they would both still be there and they would both still be his.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading my work! This is my first post, I was never really going to write Voltron fanfiction but this one wouldn't leave me alone for some reason. 
> 
> I've got a couple other ideas in this universe, so I might make this a series or something, so let me know if that would be something you'd like to read!


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